The Fey
by Funus Nex
Summary: There is no such thing as witches and warlocks, no human has magic. The only creatures to have magic were driven out by Uther Pendragon, never to return... A/N A massive AU based on Violet Wings by Victoria Henley.
1. Prologue

Prologue

_No trees grow upon the world of Tirfeyne. There are many tall bushes and a great variety of flowers, most of which can be found on Albion. Homes are built of stone and metal, not wood._

_Fairies, Genies and Leprechauns dwell upon Tirfeyne. So do Pixies, Trolls and Gremlins – but they do not live in Avalon, for they have their own countries._

**_Orville Gold, Genie Historian of Avalon_**

My mum didn't even know she was pregnant when my father disappeared.

I didn't even know what a father was until I went to school for the first time. My mother never spoke of him, I don't even know his name.

It wasn't unusual though, it's been 10 years since the purge began, and still Avalon hasn't returned to normal.

I'm just one of the hundred orphaned fey. Almost every family has lost someone to the Pendragon family.

Uther Pendragon is the King of Camelot. A kingdom in the mortal realm.

His Godmother, Nimueh, is to blame for all our suffering. She was blinded by her godchild, she forgot the risks of such powerful magic.

My mother, Hunith, tells me I would do well to ignore Albion, humans are dangerous, baffling creatures.

When I first asked my mother why we weren't to go to Albion, and why humans were so dangerous, she froze; her indigo wings shivering like those of a frightened child.

Sighing dejectedly, she beckoned for me to sit by her, "Listen Merlin, and listen well. For I will only tell you once, my dear child. It isn't a tale for young ears, are you sure you wish to know?"

Nodding hesitantly, "Please, I wish to know," I whispered.

"Very well then," leaning back, she brushed her long dark blue hair away from her gleaming azure eyes, before beginning her story, "Once upon a time, humans and the fey walked side-by-side on Albion. Living in harmony, the fey promising to protect the children and granting wishes, and bearing gifts.

As you know these were the first godmothers and godfathers. Then, one day the human king Uther Pendragon and his wife, Ygraine, discovered they were unable to bear a child. Ygraine turned to her Godfather Gaius, my brother, and begged for his help. He tried everything, but found no remedy.

However, Uther turned to his own godmother Nimueh. She knew of a way, warning her godson of the dangers, she used her position as High Priestess to give the royal couple a child. Nine months later, Prince Arthur was born.

Yet, as the young prince took his first breath, the Queen took her last. Greif-stricken the King turned on Nimueh, but she cowardly ran. Leaving the King to take out his anger on the remaining fey.

He declared every Fey was to be executed for treason, and magic was to be outlawed. The Purge had begun and as the Fey were burning, the most powerful dedicated themselves to making a safe realm for the remaining Fey. They created Avalon and warded it from humans, using the last of their radia to protect us.

Unfortunately, not every fey made it…"

I was horrified, we had been told of cruelty of humans at school, but not why.

To this day I hate Uther Pendragon for reducing my mother to this (her radiant wings having stilled, but still dark with grief), taking my father, and stealing Albion away from us.


	2. Chapter One

**5 Years Later**

_Fey magic is much misunderstood by humans: humans seem to believe that can somehow turn aside physical force. In fact, fey folk are just as vulnerable to physical injuries as humans: magic cannot save us from blades. We can usually fly fast enough to avoid knives or arrows, but only the very swiftest among us can avoid the flames._

**_Geoffrey of Monmouth, genie Historian of Avalon_**

My friend Morgana hardly ever flutters, but as she passed through the Gateway of Galena for the first time, her emerald wings quivering like rippling glass. Just behind her went Will, unable to keep from bouncing up and down, the fronds of his white hair waving round his head.

Gliding past the magical columns that guard Galena, I could barely keep myself from bouncing into from foot to foot. I was simply so excited.

We had all been forced to wait until everyone in our class was fourteen before a single one of could enter Oberon City. Dreadful, stupid law, but like all the laws of Avalon – strictly enforced. We'd been stuck in Galena – the land of babies. Toddlers and children – until Morgana, youngest in our class of fifty, turned fourteen.

Once through the gateway and inside Oberon City, our teacher, Mr Lowry, ordered us to walk. _Walk!_ As if we would cause accidents if we flew. It was total nonsense, because all of us have been flying since we were four years old.

Our feet found hard slabs of granite instead of the soft sand that is spread across Galena for safety. We had to crane our heads to see the buildings. In Galena, all structures are low to the ground, to prevent young fairies and genies from injuring themselves. But in Oberon City, great domes rose around us, gleaming silver, gold, platinum and copper. Beyond the domes, I could see mighty towers studded with gemstones.

Squeaking with excitement, Jasmine Aboss soared five wingspans high before Mr Lowry roared at her. "Stay on the ground, Aboss, or I will bind your wings!"

Jasmine dropped so fast she must have bruised her bare heels on the hard pavement. She limped on, her pale pink wings drooping. No one else dared risk a binding so close to receiving our watches, we had waited long enough, and the silence was only broken by muffled gasps of awe as we approached the viewing station.

Lowry led the way through a marble arch into a viewing station filled with trained Fey. He merely ignored them and ushered us into a separate room. Like toddlers seeing coloured smoke, we stared, slack-jawed. Crystal booths, clear as the purest raindrops, projected out from the west wall. Each booth contained a scope, a magic instrument of silver that looked from our world onto Albion.

We were here to get our first glance of the land where are parents grew up, the land which now solely belonged to the humans which burned us.

In the beginning, after the Purge, despite the sins of the Pendragons, the Fey didn't wish to abandon their Godchild. Instead, they watch over them silently, through the scopes and granting them small gifts. That's why we are here today. We were to see a fey bestow a gift - a birth gift.

Will was ahead of me. I watched him step into a booth and put his eye to the scope while Lowry hovered approvingly.

When Lowry waved me forward, not even a flicker of premonition warned me that in a moment my life would be for ever changed.

I pressed forward, gently resting against the fitting above the viewing scope. For several moments all I saw were trees and sky. Looking at them, I felt a strange sense of familiarity, like I belonged there. I yearned to abandon the booth and find the nearest portal to Albion.

"Find the baby you are here to observe, Merlin," Lowry whispered low in my ear.

Steadying myself, I prepared to see a human child for the first time. Tentatively, I touched amber switch to my left, watching as Albion spun past, the top left a delicately glowing blue pointing to the target. The kaleidoscope of images stilled, focusing on a human babe wrapped in tan cloth.

I watched as the babe reached out, clutching for the unseen, tiny, colourless hands pawing the open air in wonder. She's a very odd looking thing with a wispy thatch of hair as dull as the cloth she was wrapped in. Apparently, humans do not have variety when it comes to hair and skin colour. I gazed into the baby's beaming eyes, a warm russet-brown alight with curiosity for this new world.

The soft chime of a bell signalled the event I had been brought here to see: the transmission of a baby's birth gift. I watched as the gift descended, streaming like golden mist, settling into the baby's skin. Without asking, my magic told what gift it was to have – to have _little curiosity_.

The baby's eyes dimmed.

I didn't understand. This didn't seem like a gift, more of a curse. Taking away something good. Who would give their god child such a thing?

I squinted at the adjacent booth where the baby's godmother perched. Her sleek face turned away from her godchild without a backward glance. Before she left the booth, I clearly saw her platinum hair, braided with strands of gold.

My elbow bumped the scope, and I couldn't see the baby anymore. I tried to get her back. The next thing I knew the scope had zeroed in on a boy around my age dressed in gleaming armour, swinging around what I can only presume to be a sword. Somehow the scope caught him as he was looking up, seemingly at me. Deep blue eyes, eerily similar to my own stared back at me, momentarily distracted from sword fighting.

I jumped, knocking the arm of the scope all the way up.

"You'll get used to it," Lowry sneered.

That's one of the biggest lies anyone has ever told me.


End file.
